City staff says shelter, treatment and housing shortfalls are driving street homelessness; urges regional coordination

City staff presented an update on Salt Lake City’s winter shelter capacity and the public safety plan on Feb. 11, saying multiple parts of the system are full and that the city cannot solve the problem alone.

In a presentation using a visual “cups” analogy, a city staff member identified only as Andrew, a city staff member, said the county jail, emergency shelters, residential treatment programs and supportive housing are all operating at or above capacity and that the lack of coordinated downstream housing and services is driving people into public spaces. “If we just do one thing at a time, we’re not going to get anywhere,” he said.

The presentation outlined how constrained capacity in one part of the system backs up into others: when the county jail is full, arrests and bookings become more difficult to sustain; when shelters are full, people end up staying outdoors; when residential treatment programs have long waits, people cannot be stepped down into supportive housing. Andrew said the…